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About Smart Meter Texas

What is Smart Meter Texas (SMT)?

SMT stands for Smart Meter Texas, the name of this website. The site stores daily, monthly and 15-minute intervals electric usage data recorded by digital electric meters (commonly known as 'smart meters'), and provides secure access to that data to customers and authorized market participants (including through the use of 'Green Button').

In addition to acting as an interface for access to smart meter data, SMT enables secure communications with customer In-Home Devices, and provides a convenient, easy-to-use process whereby customers can voluntarily authorize market participants other than the customer's Retail Electric Provider (Third Parties) access to their electric usage information and In-Home Devices.

By providing timely access to electric usage data and secure communication with In-Home Devices, SMT enables customers to better manage their energy consumption to lower their monthly electric bills, and benefit from new products and services offered by Retail Electric Providers and Third Parties.

How can I get help if I have a problem with the SMT website?

What is done to ensure the privacy of my personal information?

Reasonable steps as required by applicable law are taken to protect your personal information. Your personal information is shared only as necessary for purposes related to this website and only with parties that have agreed to keep all personal information confidential. Without your consent, your personal information will NOT be sold or shared with third parties under ANY circumstances. Please refer to statements of Privacy in the Terms and Conditions section by clicking on the security tab on the left side of the SMT screen.

What is a Third-Party Service Provider?

A Third-Party Service Provider is a company that provides services to consumers related to energy use, such as energy management services and/or devices to monitor energy use and control consumption.

Third-Party Service Providers can either be:

Retail Electric Providers (REPs) who are authorized to sell electricity to consumers in the state of Texas but are not your current Retail Electric Provider,

Independent Third-Party Service Providers that provide energy related services but who are not authorized to sell electricity to consumers in the state of Texas.

You may allow one or more Third-Party Service Providers to view your usage data, add an In-Home Device to your Smart Meters, or provide In-Home Device related services.

Your current REP is automatically authorized to access your usage data. But for them to add or remove In-Home Devices to your Smart Meters or provide In-Home Device related services to you, they will need to establish a Third-Party Agreement with you.

What is Green Button?

The Green Button will let you download your energy usage information from SMT based on a nationally standardized format. You can then load the information into programs you have obtained from others or voluntarily share it with 3rd Party entities to help manage your electricity use. The Green Button icon has been placed on several pages of this site to help with navigation. Once you log in, you can follow the icon to run a Green Button report.

About Meters

What is a Smart Meter?

Smart Meters have continuously available, remote, two way communication and information storage capability that records and stores your electrical usage in 15-minute intervals and communicates that usage information back to your electric utility company.

Unlike traditional electric meters that only measure total consumption, Smart Meters show when the energy was consumed.

Why can't I see a meter that was previously in my list?

Some events may cause a Smart Meter not to appear on your list. Contact your Retail Electric Provider if you need help identifying or understanding any of these events.

If you have attached a meter to your account that belongs to another customer, the meter may be removed from your account. If that happens, you will receive an email notification.

You will lose access to Smart Meter usage data if a Retail Electric Provider notifies the electric utility company that you have moved.

If the electric utility company replaces your Smart Meter with another Smart Meter, your original Smart Meter and number will be replaced with your new Smart Meter and a new number. The Electric Service Identifier (ESI ID) will remain unchanged and can help you identify this situation.

If the electric utility company replaces your Smart Meter with a traditional non-automated meter, you will lose access to your meter since this website only contains data for Smart Meters.

About Usage

What is the usage data I see displayed on the SMT website?

Your usage data is your electrical consumption information or, simply put, the amount of electricity you used during a given time period. The SMT website displays your daily electrical usage in fifteen minute intervals. The kilowatt hour (kWh) is the most commonly used unit of measure to explain the amount of electricity consumed over time.

Why does my usage data sometimes show up as an estimate on the SMT website?

Occasionally, communication between your electric utility company and your Smart Meter may be hampered for a short period of time. In this instance, your electrical consumption (usage) data for the missing timeframe may be estimated by your electric utility company. To assist you in determining if the usage captured is actual or estimated, an 'A' for actual usage or an 'E' for an estimated usage is displayed. Your electric utility company may:

Estimate your consumption based on your normal historical usage patterns for the same day of the week and time of the day.

If this information is not available, your electric utility may estimate consumption based on your normal historical usage for a similar day and time.

If insufficient usage data exists for either of these estimates, your electric utility company may use a default usage estimate or make a manual estimate with what information is available.

In many cases, your electrical utility company continues to communicate with your Smart Meter to obtain the missing usage data and replaces estimated intervals with actual data.

Can I see who has access to my usage data?

If you have a Residential Account, you can find the list of friends whom you have granted access to view your usage information from the My Friends screen under the Agreements tab.

If you have a Business Account and you are the administrator of your Company, you can access the list of user accounts associated with your Company from the Manage User screen under the Account Profile tab.

If you have an Energy Data Agreement with Third-Party Service Providers, you can find the list of your active Energy Data Agreements from the Third-Party Agreements screen under the Agreements tab. You can view the list of ESIIDs your Third-Party Service Providers have access to under the agreement, and an activity log which tells you when the Third-Party Service Providers requested your usage data from SMT.

About In Home Devices

What is an In-Home Device?

An In-Home Device, also known as a Home Area Network (HAN) Device, is an energy information management device you may choose to install that allows you and your Third-Party Service Providers to monitor your electric usage and control your appliances. These energy information and management devices have the capability to receive informational messages and instructions from your Third-Party Service Providers that help you manage and control energy consumption. Examples of In-Home Devices include in-home displays, programmable communicating thermostats, and smart appliances.

To learn more about how to obtain and install an In-Home Device contact your Third-Party Service Providers.

How long does it take for an In-Home Device to be added / removed from my Smart Meter?

The process to add and remove In-Home Devices may take a few minutes. After you submit the request through the SMT website, SMT automatically coordinates the adding or removing of your In Home Device with your Electric Utility Company.

For more information about the process of adding/removing In-Home Devices you may review the User Guide.

What can I do with my In-Home Devices through SMT?

You can view the status of each In Home-Device associated with your SMT account as well as add and remove In-Home Devices. You can find more information about how to perform these functions in the User Guide available to registered users of this SMT website.

Why is the usage data on the SMT website occasionally different from the usage data displayed on my In-Home device?

Occasionally, communication between your electric utility company and your Smart Meter may be hampered for a short period of time. In this instance, your usage for the missing timeframe may be estimated based on your normal usage patterns. The SMT website will indicate an "A" for an actual reading and an "E" for an estimated reading. However, the electrical utility company may continue to communicate with your Smart Meter to obtain the missing usage data and replaces estimated meter readings with actual readings. Estimated meter readings may be a reason that your electrical usage data on the SMT website may differ from what you see displayed on your In-Home Device. In addition, if the timing of meter readings sent to the SMT website differs from the timing of readings sent to your personal In Home device, the usage data you see displayed on the SMT website may differ from what is displayed on your In-Home device.

What is a Third-Party Agreement?

SMT supports three (3) types of Third-Party Agreements.

Energy Data Agreement:

An Energy Data Agreement allows a Third-Party Service Provider to view the energy usage data of the customer's Smart Meter. An Energy Data Agreement can be established for up to twelve (12) months in duration

In-Home Device Agreement:

An In-Home Device Agreement allows a Third-Party Service Provider to add or remove In-Home Device to the customer's Smart Meter.

In-Home Device Services Agreement:

An In-Home Device Services Agreement allows a Third-Party Service Provider to send HAN messages and events to the customer's In-Home Devices.

If your customer has an existing SMT account, all you need is to obtain their Account Authorization Code to establish a new agreement.

If your customer does not have an SMT account, you need to provide their email address and ESIID to start the process.

You can find more information about managing your Customer Agreements in the User Guide.

How can I unlock my account?

Your account will become locked if you incorrectly enter your password four times in a row when attempting to login. You can unlock your account by following these steps:

On the Login screen, enter your User ID then select Forgot Password.

You will be presented with the Security Question that you selected during the registration process. You must answer the question using the same answer that you supplied during registration. The answer must be exact but is not case sensitive.

If you successfully answer your Security Question, your account will be Unlocked and a new temporary password will be generated and sent to the email address that you supplied in your account profile.

How is my personal contact information used?

Your Personal contact information is used by the Smart Meter Texas Team to notify you of changes relating to your Smart Meter Texas account.

If you have a Residential account and have attached a Smart Meter, then your name and email address are also available to the Retail Electric Provider associated with that Smart Meter.

All users of the Smart Meter Texas web site, including Retail Electric Providers, are required to agree with the presented Terms and Conditions when registering for an account. Please refer to statements on Privacy in the Terms and Conditions section by clicking on the security tab on the left side of the SMT screen.

How is my company's contact information used?

If you have a Business account, your Company contact information is used by the Smart Meter Texas Team to notify your Business of changes relating to your Smart Meter Texas Business account.

If your Administrators have attached a Smart Meter to your Business, then your Company's name and email address are also available to the Retail Electric Provider associated with that Smart Meter.

All users of the Smart Meter Texas web site, including Retail Electric Providers, are required to agree with the presented Terms and Conditions when registering for an account. Please refer to statements of Privacy in the Terms and Conditions section by clicking on the security tab on the left side of the SMT screen.

Can I manage more than one Smart Meter from my account?

If you register for a Residential account, you may attach multiple Smart Meters to your account even if those meters are installed on different properties.

If you register for a Business account, all registered users associated with your Business will have access to all Smart Meters attached to your Business. Only Administrators for your Business will have the authority to attach Smart Meters.

You cannot access your Residential Smart Meters from your Business account or access your Business Smart Meters from your Residential account. In this instance, you will need separate accounts.

Why is my account being revoked?

Business Accounts do not expire and can only be revoked by your Administrator. If you have a problem accessing your account after a period of inactivity, contact your company's SMT Administrator.

Residential Accounts do not expire and will not be revoked by SMT.

If you have problems accessing your account after a period of inactivity, follow these steps to unlock you account:

On the Login screen, enter your User ID then select Forgot Password.

You will be presented with the Security Question that you selected during the registration process. You must answer the question using the same answer that you supplied during registration. The answer must be exact but is not case sensitive.

If you successfully answer your Security Question, your account will be unlocked and a new temporary password will be generated and sent to the email address that you supplied in your account profile.

If you are not able to answer your Security Question correctly, contact the SMT Help Desk to unlock your account.

About Reading Reports and Using the Data

How can I download the usage data that I see on my Smart Meter (s) usage screen page onto my computer?

You can download the usage data that you can view on the SMT site in the form of a csv file. Depending of which type of report option and the time period that you select, the data will either be available to you for immediate download or you will be notified via e-mail when it is ready for download.

Select a Report Option using the drop down menu and adjust the start and end dates to meet your requirements

Click Update Report and you will be able to view the data on the screen if there is data available for that smart meter for the time period you choose.

Click Export to download the data. You will receive a prompt to save the data as a csv file if:

You selected a report option of Daily Usage (15 minute intervals) and a time period equaling one day

You selected a report option of Daily Meter Reads and a time period equaling 30 days

You selected a report option of monthly reads and a time period equaling 24 months.

If the time periods you selected for the given report options are greater than the ones listed above, you will be routed to a Report Scheduler Confirmation page. You will receive an e-mail notification when your report is ready for download.